Quilting Day

I didn't know that today is National Quilting Day until after I had made a spot on my to-do list to stitch a bit more on the star quilt.  It was pleasing to sit as I stitched and think about others doing the same, stretching back into the past, outwards in all directions in the present, and ahead into the future.

Laura and Julia both helped me safety-pin-baste the other day, a pin in the center of each of the stars and in each blue rectangle and the large blue triangles -- that was pretty much all of the safety pins in the house!

I've borrowed a quilting hoop from my mother-in-law, who wasn't sure she still had it after umpteen years but managed to find it tucked away in the basement; I also watched a number of videos on making the quilter's knot and on the peculiarities of quilting by hand.  I'm finding, though, that I can't seem to get enough of that "pinch" of fabric to successfully get through all three layers, so for now at least it is actually easier to simply do without a frame or hoop. 

Being an utter hand-quilting novice, I decided to accept that stitch-in-the-ditch is a perfectly acceptable quilting pattern, and Laura agreed with me that the resulting "fluffiness" is actually highly desirable -- I prefer the softer drapability of less-dense quilting -- so my plan is to outline each star and thence along one side or the other of each blue block.  I had to mark the "current" stitching area with a rather noxious yellow yarn, as it is surprisingly difficult to find where I'd stopped earlier -- luckily, the safety pins are a handy anchor for a lark's-head!

Any fantasies I had of achieving tiny stitches right out of the gate are pretty much gone, I must admit, and I have come to (almost ... reluctantly ... but sensibly ...) accept that my goal, on a large first project after all, is not size of stitches but uniformity!  The rocking-motion of the needle is also escaping me as yet, and so I am simply doing one swipe at a time.  Speed is something of a requirement, with a goal of being finished by say, mid-August, so needs must, and anyway I'm sure my rhythm will improve with practice -- and there will be quite a lot of that ...!

Comments

[juliet brown]

That quilt really is lovely, the quilting bit is where I run out of steam - silly I know but pffffffffffff that bit always seems such a grind. It will be so worth it to have ti all done as it is gorgeous